Coach Curry and fan/community engagement

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I'm curious. Outside of appearances on ESPN West Palm, have you guys seen or heard much of Coach Curry off the court, promoting the team and the university, etc? Or interacted much with him personally?

Looking for examples and anecdotes.

I feel like Coach Partridge is very visible and outgoing, that Coach Jarvis was very visible and outgoing, that Pelini wasn't, etc but Curry feels more distant and I wonder if that's part of the reason fan interest has dwindled (besides the losses, obviously).

But hey… if he's actually super engaged and I'm somehow missing that, happy to be wrong.

P.S. I don't respond to guest posts. All guests are encouraged to register with the site.

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I don't know if there is a written or unwritten rule at FAU about coaches showing up and supporting the different teams. But here is my only take on Coach Curry. As you know I love baseball. Before Gene Mac passed ,I always stood at the third base fence with him. He was "THE MAN" . Everyone loved him. When the different coaches showed up at the games, they would all come talk and hang with Gene. I was a bystander. Brian Wright, tennis coach, soft ball coach, WBB coach, all the coaches would come and say hello.Curry would stand by himself, talk on his cell, wait "the required" amount of time and leave. No inter action with anybody. IMHO..not a very good representative of FAU BB. As I said..just my opinion.

And that's my impression of him. That's why I was wondering how wrong it was.

Because if he's not engaging, that's actually a problem because it translates into poorer attendance, fewer listeners on ESPN West Palm, fewer donations, etc. There's a tangible financial impact of being introverted in this high level, public position.

P.S. I don't respond to guest posts. All guests are encouraged to register with the site.

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Neither Curry or Chun light up a room. I have been in a room with both as an OSF member with light traffic and neither even said hello. Either they they don't care or they don't know how the game is played, not good.

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I think he's getting at that Jarvis knew how to engage the community and drum up interest in the program, he was an evangelist for FAU and really did bring in some new fans. If he was able to keep players excited to play for him, we could've had a great run. Charlie is doing the same thing for football and Howard did before him.

Curry is a little like Pelini in that he has some big time experience but doesn't really know what it's like to run a small athletic program where grassroots efforts and literally asking people when you are in line at Publix to come to a game is something you must do. I had initial concerns about his ability to recruit and run a collegiate program, the guy is really learning on the job, and coaching and motivating 19 year olds is vastly different from the NBA. If Curry was winning 20+ a season, would we care? Probably not. But we're awfully boring to watch, we're losing, AND he's not engaging the fan-base…that's a recipe for unemployment.

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teambeer said

I think he's getting at that Jarvis knew how to engage the community and drum up interest in the program, he was an evangelist for FAU and really did bring in some new fans. If he was able to keep players excited to play for him, we could've had a great run. Charlie is doing the same thing for football and Howard did before him.

Curry is a little like Pelini in that he has some big time experience but doesn't really know what it's like to run a small athletic program where grassroots efforts and literally asking people when you are in line at Publix to come to a game is something you must do. I had initial concerns about his ability to recruit and run a collegiate program, the guy is really learning on the job, and coaching and motivating 19 year olds is vastly different from the NBA. If Curry was winning 20+ a season, would we care? Probably not. But we're awfully boring to watch, we're losing, AND he's not engaging the fan-base…that's a recipe for unemployment.

Precisely. Jarvis did a great job of immersing himself in the community. He got into the churches down here and drummed up support, he made it a point to promote the program everywhere he went to drum support, etc. Shame that Curry hasn't done the same.

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In some fairness, not to make an excuse for Curry, but I believe Jarvis was already a Boca resident and had made connections in the community before he started coaching here. Too bad he seemed to be having issues getting through to his players. Hope Curry can turn it around.